American Greetings receives offer to go private

By Allison Cerra

CLEVELAND — A greeting cards company announced that its board of directors has received a nonbinding proposal to go private.

American Greetings confirmed that the board received a letter from CEO Zev Weiss, president and COO Jeffrey Weiss, along with certain other members of the Weiss family and related parties, to acquire all of the outstanding class A and class B common shares of American Greetings not currently owned by the them for $17.18 per share.

The company expects that its board will form a special committee of independent directors to consider the proposal. American Greetings noted that it "does not anticipate making any further public statements about this matter or the activities of the special committee unless and until either it enters into a definitive agreement for a transaction or the special committee determines that no such transaction will be effected."

American Greetings is scheduled to disclose its second quarter 2013 earnings on Friday.